Open enrollment: It's time to get started

Good communication with employees will be more important than ever this year. Are you ready?

Companies who rely on more traditional outreach methods (like handing out packets of information with paycheck stubs or leaving notes tacked up in break room bulletin boards) often fail to effectively reach frontline workers.

We’re just a couple of weeks into summer… schools are out, the days are hot, employees are burning through their vacation days. You know what that means/? Open enrollment is just around the corner!

Daniel Sztutwojner, chief customer officer and co-founder at Beekeeper.

The workforce is still undergoing a massive transformation as a result of the pandemic as companies start to reopen their offices and restart the hiring process. Many workers, emboldened by the promise of greener pastures, are considering a career move. All of this points to the need for HR professionals to be on top of their benefits communication game this year.

Related: Did COVID-19 change employees’ benefit tactics during the 2020 open enrollment?

Daniel Sztutwojner, chief customer officer and co-founder at Beekeeper, recently shared some insights with BenefitsPRO as to how to make this year’s open enrollment a success.

Why should HR leaders start thinking about open enrollment right now?

Good communication between HR and the rest of an organization is critical to ensure a successful open enrollment season and maximize participation. With all of the information that needs to be shared with employees, HR teams should spend time preparing and creating a comprehensive communication strategy to ensure employees understand their options.

The best strategy for ensuring employees enroll on time is to communicate early and often. Sharing information over an extended period of time via multiple different channels gives employees more opportunities to review all of their available options and make the best decisions for themselves and their families in the coming year.

What points and information are essential to creating a bullet-proof internal communications strategy?

An internal communications strategy is only as effective as its reach. Companies who rely on more traditional outreach methods (like handing out packets of information with paycheck stubs or leaving notes tacked up in break room bulletin boards) often fail to effectively reach frontline workers. One surefire way to execute a robust, inclusive communication plan is with a mobile collaboration tool.

The vast majority of the workforce has a smartphone in their pocket. Employers should digitize their open enrollment communication with a mobile-first platform that can reach every employee whether they’re on the sales floor, the production line, or behind a desk. It’s also important to have a dedicated workplace app that is secure, compliant, and safe for communicating sensitive information.

In order to secure victory in the battle for your employees’ attention, we recommend an omni-channel communication battle plan:

What are the unique challenges that frontline industries face with open enrollment, and how can HR leaders overcome them?

Frontline employees make up the majority of the world’s workforce, representing 80% of the global labor pool. Reaching these frontline teams with the information they need when they need it has been a long-standing challenge for many organizations. Without access to a company email or a computer, frontline teams don’t have the same immediate access to information as their desk-based colleagues.

When a company is rolling out its open enrollment messaging, having a workplace app allows them to reach its frontline employees directly on their mobile devices. This strategy levels the playing field, allowing HR to instantly send information to the entire organization. A mobile platform also offers a multichannel approach to communicating essential information to a dispersed team. This can include a dedicated communication stream for users to share information around open enrollment, a chatbot that can automatically answer employee questions, one-on-one chats between HR and workers, and detailed analytics that show who has received and reviewed the information.

Digitizing open enrollment communication also streamlines routine tasks for your HR team. Centralizing open enrollment communication in one digital hub makes this project easier to manage, especially with capabilities like automated enrollment reminders and read receipts to ensure every employee receives the communication.

How do you actually get employees to read the plan information?

The amount of information that employees must review during open enrollment can be overwhelming. One study showed that 80% of employees don’t even read their benefits information. The past year has taught us how important it is to be prepared for the unexpected, both collectively and personally. Having the right healthcare plans in place is essential, but that can only happen if employees read and understand the benefits available to them.

Here are a few ways to encourage employees to read through all of the open enrollment communication:

Boost your reach with a mobile communication platform. To effectively reach everyone in an organization using a mobile-first communication tool is now the way to go. Today, 96% of workers in the 18-29 age range use a mobile device, and they now make up a greater segment of today’s workforce. It’s important to note that a mobile-first tool still reaches desk workers, but it also includes a population that has long missed out on corporate communication—frontline workers.

Digitize open enrollment information. Handing out those bulky packets will discourage employees from reading open enrollment information. They need digital information to easily review relevant information and search for exactly what they need. Create a document library where all open enrollment information is stored.

Create an internal marketing strategy. HR teams should create a dedicated internal marketing campaign for open enrollment. Use a communication stream on a workplace app to channel all of this information. Supplement streams with targeted communication for specific groups and create a forum for a Q+A where employees can easily ask questions at their convenience.

Break the information down into bite-sized pieces. Open enrollment can cause information overload and discourage employees from reading their messages. Break information down to make it more manageable to digest. Ideas include highlighting a specific plan in one message or sharing a quick video on how an HSA works. Create a schedule to spread out the distribution of information so it’s not overwhelming for employees.

How can HR leaders incorporate workforce technology into their communication strategy?

Workforce technology should be the foundation for any communication strategy. Looking at open enrollment specifically, HR can leverage technology to maximize outcomes, like getting everyone to read communication and participate in enrollment. They can do this by choosing the best solution for their organization. And with 80% of the global workforce on the frontlines, mobile-first communication tools are a secure, safe bet.

They can:

By breaking down silos and facilitating two-way communication, a mobile collaboration platform can boost employee engagement and help HR leaders get the most out of their communication strategy.

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